Critical Linking: January 25th, 2013

Some of the two-foot high, Plexiglas and metal letters that spelled out “BORDERS BOOKS & MUSIC” are available to bid on via eBay to raise money for the Ann Arbor-based Book Industry Charitable Foundation.

How much in content sales does it take for Amazon to earn a 20 percent profit margin on its Kindle Fire hardware? About $10 per month, which generates $3 once Amazon takes its 30 percent cut. Senior analyst at ABI Research, Aapo Markkanen, estimated by doing the math last week, saying this incremental $3 revenue would be required over the life of the hardware to maintain such a profit margin.

This is why “The Following,” with its thinly veiled infatuation with omnipotent, amoral killers, has no right to invoke Poe. Beneath the gothic trappings of his verse and tales is the truth of human life, rather than a callow, sub-Nietzschean fantasy about casting off all moral restraints.